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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24668680">Hold Out</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromtheclouds/pseuds/fromtheclouds'>fromtheclouds</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ozark (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Jason Bateman activated my daddy issues in this show I'm sorry, Slow Burn, and here is the result, and i could keep going if you want me to, lots of yearning</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:34:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,803</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24668680</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/fromtheclouds/pseuds/fromtheclouds</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Reader has worked for Marty since the Byrde's first moved to the Ozarks, and finds him vulnerable and alone after a fight with Wendy.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Marty Byrde/Original Female Character(s), Marty Byrde/Reader, Marty Byrde/Wendy Byrde</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>29</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hold Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She wasn’t sure what time it was when she stumbled into the clearing. Well past sundown, but not quite midnight. Her arms and legs stung where she’d been scratched by thorns and branches faltering through the forest. It’d been hours since she’d last heard from him. Each call that went unanswered made her more and more frantic. It was unlike him.</p><p>After searching all over town, all the spots she’d usually find him when he was hard to track down, she’d come up with nothing. And she had her phone pressed to her ear with Wendy’s number dialed in before she thought of one last place she hadn’t checked.</p><p>Gravel spit from the back of her tires as Y/N turned too quickly off the road and parked her car, throwing open the door and nearly sprinting through the woods to the small meadow. </p><p>She’d been going here since she was a little kid. It was her own little park she’d stumbled upon one day ambling around town. Very few locals knew about it, let alone any tourists. Tall grass and wildflowers nipped at her knees along with the mosquitoes, and stars glittered against the black abyss above, the moonlight reflecting off the lake. And despite the late hour, she could see everything, including Marty, standing with his back to her, toes over the edge of a rock that hung over the lake at least a hundred feet below.</p><p>Her heart lurched. “Marty,” Y/N said his name before she could stop herself, concerned for a moment she might startle him into the unthinkable. But when he didn’t so much as glance over his shoulder in response, she wondered if he’d even heard her. </p><p>Treading forward lightly, she paused a foot or two behind him, carefully reaching out. “Hey,” she said, fingers clasping around his wrist, above his expensive watch. He didn’t take the hint, didn’t budge, didn’t look at her, eyes still on the lake. It rippled placidly, lapping against the jagged rocks below them, but he was looking beyond its tranquil appearance, the emptiness beneath the surface that could swallow him whole, like he wanted it to. </p><p>Despite the chill of the evening, he was still dressed for work, in a button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, the moon reflecting off his dress shoes. She stepped a little closer to the edge alongside him, just to see his profile. </p><p>A slight tug on his wrist prompted him to step backwards, and she released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Marty’s chest began heaving, like he just realized where he was standing, his eyes shifting towards her like he finally noticed she was there.</p><p>“What are you doing out here?” she asked without thinking, and it was a stupid question, she knew.</p><p>He didn’t answer, and she didn’t expect him to. In the dark, she guided him away from the ledge, one hand between his shoulders. Marty tripped over himself, eyes red-rimmed and glazed over. He’d been drinking, or crying. Or maybe both.</p><p>He didn’t lose his cool. Even though it seemed they were always getting the short end of the stick, always scrambling to clean up a mess, ten steps behind where they should be. Despite this, he was always a force. Steady. But not now.</p><p>Of course she didn’t like being out of the loop. And he did a good job of communicating with her. So whatever this was, whatever could have caused this, she’d almost rather be ignorant to.</p><p>“How’d you find me?” was all he asked, and despite the distress on his face his voice was characteristically even. There was an old rotting picnic table they sat down at, with her next to him, looking over the lake, out at the pitch dark sky and the glimmering lights in the distance of a few boats still on the water. </p><p>“It took some time,” she said. “I looked everywhere.”</p><p>“You should be in bed,” he said flatly.</p><p>“Well I’m not,” she chewed on her lower lip, taking a deep breath, her chest catching on the ache in her heart.</p><p>“Did you need something?” he asked, his voice had the same frost she saw in the air when she exhaled, and she felt it clutch around her chest, her words coming out choked and stuttered.</p><p> “I- I didn’t want….the things I said the last time we talked...to be the last thing I ever said to you...”</p><p>“They wouldn’t have been,” he said, although not so convincingly. He still refused to look at her, his eyes never leaving the horizon.</p><p>“Are you sure?” she asked, feeling a bit more emboldened.  “Look, you don’t have to tell me what’s going on, or what you’re doing here. But I’m not stupid.”</p><p>He didn’t answer her, just leaned forward, elbow to his knee as he rubbed his temple between his thumb and forefinger. She could see clouds rolling in, the wind picking up. It was supposed to storm, and she didn’t want either of them to get caught up in bad weather.</p><p>“How’d you get here?” she asked. “I didn’t see your car on my way in.”</p><p>“I walked,” he said flatly. They were miles away from anything, let alone his house.</p><p>“Let me give you a ride home,” she said. All she wanted to do was help him. He’d helped her before, so many times, probably when he didn’t want to. So she knew she had to do this for him. She wanted to. Even if she couldn’t give him what he really needed.</p><p>“I can’t go home right now,” he muttered into his hand. </p><p>“Then stay at my place,” she said softly, she felt tears pricking at the corner of her eyes. She hated herself for feeling the way she did about him. Marty was a criminal. He’d made her one, too. But she was stuck on him, for some inexplicable reason. The only man who’d ever truly seen her. And right now, he looked so broken. </p><p>Surprisingly, he didn’t argue.</p><p>By the time they got to the car, she could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance, and the rain had started to come down. </p><p>The ride home went quickly. She was wet and shivering. Neither of them uttered a word and she was partly thankful for it, though with each moment of silence she felt more and more desperate to know what was wrong.</p><p>Marty had the decency to pull off his shoes at her front door, sitting on the couch in her living room while she put on some hot water for tea and changed into dry clothes. When she returned to her living room with the mug, towels and a blanket, she found him staring blankly ahead, one elbow resting on the edge of the couch. </p><p>He started when she pressed the mug into his free hand, and she frowned as she sat down next to him. </p><p>“Are you staying up with me?” he asked, turning to her as she tucked her legs underneath her on the middle cushion.</p><p>“If you want me to,” she said, leaning against the back of the couch.</p><p>Marty didn’t answer, he took a sip of his tea and then grimaced, abandoning it on the side table next to him. That meant yes. In his never ending quest to remain unreadable, she’d figured out a few things in the years she’d known him. </p><p>“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she prompted. </p><p>“I got into an argument with Wendy,” he said flatly.</p><p>In the time it’d taken her to drive him here, he seemed to have pulled himself together enough to be back on the defense, much more collected than before. “That’s all?” she asked, skeptical. </p><p>He shrugged. “You know everything else there is to know.”</p><p>And most of what he’d been through was enough to make anyone crack. </p><p>“I’m sorry,” she said softly. She knew things between him and Wendy had always been tense, but she always assumed it was just because of work. They didn’t seem to really love each other, but it was none of her business. It was probably better not to press. </p><p>“I’ve only ever wanted to get us out of this mess,” he said, shaking his head. “And she….well we both...have only gotten in deeper.”</p><p>“I know,” she said softly. Marty buried his head in his hands, hunching forward. Tentatively, she reached out, placing her hand at the base of his neck, then slowly working her thumb against the knots she could feel rippling underneath the skin of his shoulders. Marty exhaled, lifted his head up from his hands to look at her, finally. </p><p>His normally steely blues were rimmed red and glassy. Whether he’d been crying or not, the strain was evident on his face, somewhere between the dark circles that hung beneath his eyes and his sunken cheeks. Tense was an understatement, and the constant pressure the past few years had taken their toll. It’d been awhile since she’d been this close to him, and she could see the gray in his hair, sprouting up around his ears and along his hairline, the stubble on his jaw. </p><p>“Is there anything I can do?” she asked, near pleading, desperate to provide some sort of solace. She never felt the need to fill empty space with words, but she was scared for him. But at the same time, she felt she couldn’t be enough to comfort him.</p><p>He answered her with a sad smile. His hand rose to clasp her own, still resting at his shoulder. Gooseflesh rose on her arm as she was drawn closer, and if this were any other man, she’d expect him to kiss her. </p><p>Y/N reached out, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, pulling him close. It was impulsive, and she expected him to jolt away, at first. He was warm, his shirt still damp from the rain. His arms wrapped around her torso, she felt his steady breath on her neck, his head tucked under her chin. </p><p>“This is enough,” he whispered.</p><p>The rain came down steadily outside, thunder rumbling above, and she closed her eyes. She’d stay this way as long as he needed her. It was a long time, then, she only realized, when his breathing became light and even and she, too, drifted off.</p><p>When she woke up the next day, alone on her couch with a blanket draped carefully over her, she knew what to expect from Marty. He’d carry on like it never happened. Like she hadn’t let her lips brush over his temple, like he hadn’t whispered ‘thank you’ before he fell asleep in her arms. And she thought maybe it would be better off for her to believe it’d all been a dream.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>hey all. </p><p>im currently obsessed with this show, so please enjoy this. i have felt badly for marty since season 1, and feel like he just needs a hug or something? or a love interest who's soft and gentle with him??? i don't know. but i have a whole world planned around these two if you'd like to see more. i know this is a very niche fandom but if you like this at all, please let me know! it was fun to write.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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